Cierva C.30a Autogyro - Veeday 1/72nd scale vintage kit

The Cierva C.30a is now ready to take to the skies. The vintage Veeday kit needed extensive work to become a credible replica. The post with the whole procedure and some references can be visited following the link below. Although I do a lot of tongue-in-cheek “criticism”, the effort and hard work put on these products by the cottage industry manufacturers has to be recognized too. Some (like this one) are vintage kits that deserve some slack, and surely were –at the time- a labor of love. Still, it doesn’t mean that if you want to build them they won’t be challenging. They certainly will be. This one was built for the sake of fun (because what is more fun than bitching?) but you are better off with the Azur/RS kits no doubt.

The model was finished in an Argentinean registration. This airframe (much mistreated and partially spuriously restored) still exists in an Argentinean museum. At some point in its happy civil life (stated as 1966 in sources) the Argentinean Air Force expropriated it –seemingly without compensation- and later proceeded to remove parts of it. Someone gave/sold the original rotor blades to Spain, pillaged the instruments, and otherwise patched things up to sadly make it into the distant resemblance that is now of its original civil state. The model aims to reproduce the aircraft as seen in a photo from 1966 at the locality of El Bolsón, Argentina, on this blog:

https://arqueologiaaeronautica.blogspot.com/2014/06/avro-671-la-cierva-c30a-matr-lv-fbl.html

The step-by-step building article:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2026/01/cierva-c30a-autogyro-veeday-vintage.html

Replaced kit parts:

Complete rotor assembly

Wheels

Struts/landing gear

Complete engine*/prop

Horizontal tail

Decals

Control column

*The engine is a fantastically detailed and clean cast by Master Modeler Matías Hagen of Argentina, of 72Topia model manufacturing fame. His line of kits can be visited following the link on the side bar.

Added parts:

Cockpit floor

Two inst. pan.

Fuel caps

Rotor starting shaft

Pitot

I am tempted to launch a new line of scale models: Replace-o-Matic kits. The box should contain a plan and be filed with miscellaneous pieces of garbage that the modeler has to replace with new parts to obtain an accurate model.

Anyway, another kit is rescued and given a new life. The model may not be perfect, but it is miles away from what would have been if built o.o.b.